Streaming doesn’t stop stealing: New research on digital piracy

What makes people download pirated music? Karla Borja and Suzanne Dieringer, economists at the University of Tampa, surveyed 1,052 college students enrolled in introductory business classes at two Florida universities (one public and one private) in 2014 and 2015. Seventy-eight percent reported to have downloaded music illegally in the previous month.

Borja and Dieringer reason that streaming services and digital piracy are either substitutes or complements. If substitutes, streaming could put an end to piracy. If complements — where listeners use a streaming service to discover new music and then download it illegally — streaming might have no negative impact.